An Apologia for Boat Brokers And Some Pretty Good Sailing

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Melissa

I am fighting the urge to wax philosophical about the lot in life that belongs to the beleaguered boat broker. Whereas in the past I might have misunderstood their pain and suffering at the hands of the average boat shopper, I am now in a position where I want to wrap them all up in my arms, pat them gently on their bowed backs, dry their little eyes and say, “I’m sorry for you! Would you like to talk about the possibility of finding an entirely different profession?”. I understand their pain. I feel their pain. We are living their pain because we are trying to sell our own boat. Why are boat brokers in pain? It’s because of people, that’s why. People who don’t know what they want. And we know this because we have been those people and we have caused pain. And now we are getting our payback.

Watercolor of Moonrise by Alex Kimball

How could this possibly happen, you might be wondering. Isn’t it true that the price of a boat is listed, along with photographs of the boat and at least basic information about the make, model, and year? Doesn’t this guarantee that potential buyers will have some idea of what they are looking at?

If you answered yes, a big SMACK DOWN for you because that would be logical, and people are anything but logical. Just stop right now with your logical thinking! You are actually more likely to have to show the boat to people who are really looking for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT KIND OF BOAT. That’s right.

Here are some examples:

The person who has $40,000 to spend, but is hoping your $20,000 boat will be just as nice. Because, seriously, people always UNDERvalue their boats.
The person who wants the style of a 1980’s boat at a 1970’s boat price. Again, photos.
The person who really wants an outboard engine but comes to look at a boat with an inboard engine. It’s pretty hard to change that.
The person who wants to spend $20,000 on a boat, but wants everything on it to be new. (Cue hysterical laughter here.)

A lot of rain in the mountains created tidal striations in the waters of Commencement Bay on a very sunny Labor Day weekend.

It’s becoming clear to us that brokers work much harder for the sale than anyone gives them credit for. It’s a lot of work to sell a boat. We’re sorry to any brokers whose time they feel we wasted. We like meeting people, and we really don’t mind doing boater education. We understand the need to look at a lot of boats since we, too, enjoy that, although we hesitate to waste a broker’s time anymore just to see a boat if we are fairly certain we won’t be making an offer. We’ve learned our lesson there. We don’t even mind showing our boat to people who are just curious because they know we have a blog. I mean, what boat owner doesn’t want to stand around and chew the fat about his boat? Ask us about our batteries! We’ll tell you…We might even take you for a sail.

But this is where our ‘boat broker’ experience ends. Brokers are looking to create relationships with people, knowing they will spend a lot of time up front and might be able to sell a boat later. Brokers have a lot of boats to sell. We, on the other hand, have only one boat to sell. Just one good, solid sailboat with a reliable engine and good sails that is ready to go with no required work on the part of the buyer that we know of. What’s the problem with that? We wish we knew. We’re looking for one honest to goodness buyer who has done their homework about the kind of boat they want and who will offer a reasonable price for our boat and follow through with the sale. That’s all. Just one. Know anybody?

Cute little gaff rigged sailboat.

Meanwhile as we ponder the more philosophical side of this whole boat selling business, we ask ourselves if it’s worth all the hassle, all the emotional roller coaster riding we’ve had to do lately. We are getting a little bone weary of this whole thing and the idea of just taking this Cal 34 on the first part of our voyage begins to look more and more attractive. It would certainly be cheaper. It’s likely to be pretty uncomfortable sometimes, but, as they say, the ocean passages are only a small part of the whole experience. And it would just be so much easier.

In other news, Mike was commenting yesterday that this has been one of the best years for sailing that he can remember. We’ve had more sunny days, AND more wind than usual. We had two back to back excellent days of sailing on Commencement Bay and when I say ‘sailing’, I mean 6.8 knots on a close reach, all the way to Vashon Island. Woo Hoo!! On days like that it’s hard to be upset that we still have our boat. It could be worse. We could own a boat that is so heavy it can’t sail out of its own way (in the words of a certain broker we know). Or we could have a project boat that just won’t quit. Oh, the thoughts we are thinking right now. They do go round in circles.

All kinds of interesting boats out on the water this weekend!

If you are looking for the companion blog post to the article on ThreeSheetsNW about the SSS Odyssey, here’s the link for that. We hope you read it because the Sea Scouts is a seriously cool organization.

Maritime Fun

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Melissa

This week I got a wild hair and starting ripping my gardens apart. Yep. It’s that time of year and, tired of feeling completely overwhelmed at the prospect of these gardens, I decided to take advantage of this part of the season and commence to ripping and shredding. The goal: SIMPLIFY! Once I gave myself permission to simply toss out plants that were no longer serving the space well, things moved along rapidly. I was energized! Man, it does feel good when gardens go from junglefevergonemad to well-groomed in just a few short days. But the body doth protest loudly and I needed a break from all my good work.

See all the space between plants? That didn’t used to be there. Next year this will look awesome.

So it’s a good thing Tacoma’s Maritime Fest was this weekend because it gave us a good reason to get down to the docks, take Moonrise for a little spin, and then eat junk food while gazing at pirate ships. Tacoma always feels a bit like the unwanted stepchild of her bigger, fancier Seattle sister so it’s pretty darned awesome that she is living her own version of the Cinderella story down on the Foss Waterway. There’s a large group of folks who are working to make Tacoma’s maritime history come alive again and bring boat building and appreciation of all things ‘nautical’ back to the collective consciousness in T Town.

The plan was to take Moonrise down to the park at the end of the public dock, anchor there, and row to shore. We could enjoy the festival, then go sailing. But the currents and boat wakes had other plans for us and the holding was terrible. We couldn’t leave Moonrise safely, so the sailing came first. And that gave us the opportunity to sail alongside this:

The Lady Washington

and this:

The Hawaiian Chieftain

There’s nothing quite like sailing a Cal 34 next to a buxom and beautiful Tall Ship to make a girl feel inadequate. Not to mention their cannons. It’s quite a sight to see two ships like this firing at each other across the water, cannons smoking. That’s some good clean fun!

The star of the water, though, is the Sparkman and Stephens sailing yacht SSS Odyssey, sailed by Tacoma’s own Sea Scouts and berthed just across the Foss Waterway from us at the Tacoma Youth Marine Center. We love the beautiful lines of this 90 foot yawl and feel lucky to get to sail on the same home waters. I’ve written a review of this boat and hopefully we’ll see it on Three Sheets NW soon.

By the way, Sea Scouts is a worthy non-profit organization. As the tax year closes, if you have any extra money you could throw their way, they’d appreciate it and you’d get a tax deduction. Donations to support SSS Odyssey’s programs are gratefully accepted through the Tacoma Youth Marine Center. You don’t have to be a rich kid to get to train on a boat like Odyssey. That’s because people donate. Right?

SSS Odyssey. Is it possible for a boat to be any more lovely?

So we had a fine sail with the last of the summer wind, feeling beautiful by association with those bigger, taller, lovelier boats. Then we sailed back to our slip and walked down the water to enjoy the festivities and eat completely unhealthy food.

This year’s festival was organized by our own Sue Schaeffer of Capital City Yachts. Her goals for the year were to bring in more kids and families, offer more classes and educational opportunities, and bring in more exhibits related to the marine trades. Looks like this year’s festival was a success in all three areas. Here are some of the photos from our day at the docks.

A ‘Helicat’. No, it doesn’t fly. But you can buy one of your very own here.

No maritime festival is complete without Disneyesque pirates.

One of the vendors sold reclaimed architectural stuff for houses, but I thought this goat would make a good figurehead for the bow of a ship. I wanted that goat bad.

Inside the museum they had an exhibit of recreational boats from past decades. This beauty is from the 1950’s, a fine decade.

And you can read more about this non profit organization here. These folks remind me very much of Tristan Jones, who wanted to show handicapped children that they, too, could do cool things.

Next year I hope I get to see the ‘quick and dirty’ boat building contest. That does sound like good fun. Here’s one of the boats a team built for the race.

Pretty good for just a few hours, some plywood, and some ‘mystery items’.

People

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Melissa

During our recent vacation to the Gulf Islands we found ourselves enchanted by more than just the scenery and good wind. British Columbia offers some sterling people watching and our new go-to spot has to be Bergoyne Bay. Located on the west coast of Salt Spring Island, Bergoyne Bay is long and over 300 feet deep, with rocky headlands guarding the entrance. At the head of the bay is a provincial park with waters of anchoring depth. There is great hiking and the shallow waters close to shore are warm enough for swimming with the local seals. What could be better?

The blue dot is at the head of Bergoyne Bay on Salt Spring island.

I’ll tell you what could be better: people living in float homes, that’s what. Apparently British Columbia has not regulated the hell out of everything everywhere yet, at least here, because there are some particularly awesome float homes in Bergoyne Bay that are built from recycled and ‘found’ materials. Since the people who live in them are not hurting anyone else, they are allowed to exist peacefully. Likely some of these folks would be considered homeless if the government decided they were intruding on someone’s idea of a water view and kicked them out. I talked to some of the locals about the float homes and was told that there is a ‘live and let live’ attitude that exists there, although this is clearly a special case. I was glad to see that in at least one part of North America you don’t have to have 10 million dollars to enjoy waterfront living (not counting living on a boat, of course).

Water hippies.

So let me tell you about the waterfront awesomeness that is represented in the above photo. The main structure is ferrocement. On top is a greenhouse where I am swearing to you they are growing squash (and perhaps other kinds of herbs that are more or less ‘colorful’). You can see that aside from the main structure, which is pretty spacious, there is a smaller hut, used for dining al fresco. I would have loved to tour this place but most people don’t want their homes confused with a tourist attraction, so I didn’t ask. But they are probably used to tourists staring. And photographing. I did try to be discreet as I paddled around their house, eyes wide open.

But let’s be fair when thinking about my voyeuristic ways. Consider this: We’re sitting in our cockpit in the evening having dinner, watching the shore for wildlife. I observe a man walking along the shore. He stops beside a rock and before my very eyes, he drops his pants. All the way. The full monty. Now I am completely interested, and wouldn’t you be, too? If that happened around here, someone would surely call the cops. We are in the U.S. after all. We like our nakedness on the front of magazines, not in a natural setting.

He casually wades into the water and goes for a swim, exits said water and shakes like a dog, and puts his pants back on. Apparently clothing is optional at Bergoyne Bay. Turns out this guy lives on the ferrocement floating home and he is frequently seen naked in fine weather. And playing his trumpet. That’s right! At the same time. Who wouldn’t be looking? I’m not proud; I used binoculars!

You cannot pay for this kind of ‘dinner and a show’ anywhere. Turns out the guy plays the trumpet whenever the spirit moves him. Not a song, mind you, just quick blasts of 6 or 7 notes. His woman, elfin and crone-like, yet young, plays the French Horn and they are known to do their own special B.C. rendition of Dueling Banjos, sans tune. Fabulous! I tell you I would love to have a conversation with these folks. Maybe I can wrangle an invite to tea next time.

The sunken sailboat really adds to the ambiance provided by this little trailer home. I rowed around this place many times, just trying to resolve my own cognitive dissonance.

Next door to our artistic and musical couple is this pitiful little trailer. I assumed it was abandoned because of its generally trashed out condition, but I checked with my local source and he said it wasn’t. Still, it’s hard to believe that anyone would need a sailboat that was pretty much under water. Not shown in the photo is a toilet sitting outside the front door. One can only hope he doesn’t actually use it…

And this was just neat, tidy, and even attractive in a rustic, reclaimed sort of way.

On the far side of the bay was this little house. This looks like it was built all at one time, with an actual plan in mind. Inside it is nicely furnished with a full kitchen, a young child’s chalkboard easel standing in the window. That’s right. I peaked inside the window (from the dingy, mind you. I may be curious, but I hope I am not rude.) I would love to spend a summer in this place.

After our naked man experience, we kept our eyes open when sitting in the cockpit. The following evening we were rewarded once more. There was a very nice party on the beach. Some young people brought lanterns and tables, blankets and large cushions for the ground. It looked like a festive event among friends was in the offing. Soon the small crowd had gathered and the revelries began but rather than the loud drunken sort I half expected, they were quiet and respectful. You hardly really knew they were there so they didn’t really offer many opportunities for gawping. Until 5 women made their way down the beach to the area just in front of our boat, laughing and talking together and generally being women friends. Then the stripping began. Soon there were 5 aspects of Venus, splashing in the foam. Since they were my age or better, I didn’t bother to distract Mike.

We’ll have to go back to Bergoyne Bay and stay longer when we find ourselves bored with our regular lives. I was just getting the hang of the clothing optional lifestyle when we left.

By the way, if you go there, be aware of your anchor. It’s one of the only places we’ve ever had to reset the anchor because we were moving gently and slowly toward shore. Stick to the deeper water to anchor and you should be fine.

Lovely Bergoyne Bay.

The other great people watching place is Victoria. Guest dockage in Victoria Harbour is directly in front of the Empress Hotel, that icon of genteel living. It’s worth it to go there just for that experience. This part of Victoria is filled with tourists from all over the world and thus there is much entertainment to be had. And I’m not talking about the street performers. Here are a few photos from Victoria.